Laser ablation combined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) can be used for imaging of biological samples (cells, tissues, etc.) labeled with elemental tags. Each laser pulse generates a plume of ablated material from the sample which can be transferred to be ionized for further analysis by the mass analyzer. The information acquired from the laser pulses at each location on the sample can then be used for imaging the sample based on its analyzed content. However, this technique has limitations in its ability to separately resolve each discrete plume of ablated material produced from each laser ablation pulse on the sample.